see end of chapter for tws

wc: 2483

Xisuma's going to die.

Grian's hand was reaching out, towards Xisuma, mouth open in a shout- the way Xeluph's hand pulsed with its glow left the sure, sinking, definite feeling in Grian's gut that this was powerful, and deadly. And Grian was too late, too late, too late- His gaze flitted from Xisuma to Scar, who yelped as someone shot upwards and grabbed his ankle, dragging him from the safety of the vents- He saw False growling as someone launched themselves at her, hand blazing with flame- He saw Etho, shooting round after round from his blaster and swiftly ducking beneath a swinging leg, but he also saw the fear on his face, in his one good eye- He saw Jevin's form completely collapse onto the ground in a slick puddle to avoid a swinging knife, eventually reforming several feet away, chest heaving- He saw Tango, one hand clasped around a Watcher's neck and the other on the Watcher's head, eyes blown wide in horror as flesh bubbled and a voice screamed- He saw Gem, who dodged more than she fought, stepping aside as a Watcher flung themselves with a shout and a pump of wings- He saw Iskall, whose mechanical eye whirred nonstop as he looked for weaknesses, for openings, for anything to make this easier- He saw Doc, taking a blow to the stomach in stride and firing his blaster into the assailant's face- He saw Ren, falling back with frantic breaths before spinning and swinging his sword at the last minute, barely avoiding certain death at the hands of violet- He saw Cleo, green skin sowing itself back together as she pushed forward with a scream- He saw Wels, swiftly stabbing a Watcher clean through in the stomach, but wincing as another came crashing into him from behind- He saw Bdubs, using his smaller stature as an advantage, yet still barely avoiding someone's fist- He saw Stress, still in a vent, watching with worried eyes as people cried out- He saw Impulse, bodily knocking someone to the ground and grimacing at the man's head thunked painfully on the ground-

Distantly, Grian realized that he had scanned every Hermit, drank their appearances in, all in a moment's heartbeat. It was as if time had slowed, every blink taking minutes, to elongate this moment as Xisuma stood facing Xeluph's blazing hand and twisted face.

Grian glanced down at hands that trembled minutely and watched as the men he had killed inched their falls to the ground at a sloth's pace. This was not a moment, this was in between moments, and Grian did not understand.

"He's going to die, you know," a voice said behind Grian.

He whirled, holding his hands out in front of him in a fighting stance and silently cursing himself for having not noticed the person sooner. Apprehension stretched his muscles taut as he eyed the figure warily.

"Who are you?" Grian demanded. He absolutely detested the way his voice betrayed the primal, inherent fear tearing at his insides. "How did you do this?"

The person seemed to sharpen around the edges, and Grian found himself squinting to try and make out their features better. Eventually, he could see long, brown hair, messily styled and curling gently, flowing down shoulders cloaked in navy blue. A large enchanted hood cast a shadow across her face, but as she stepped forward into the light, glinting blue-gray eyes crinkled at the edges in the telltale smile of Pearlescent Moon.

"...Pearl?" Grian asked, voice still wavering. "Is it- Is-"

"I have an offer," Pearl said, voice strong and steady even as carnage continued its snail's pace descent around them. "Will you listen?"

"Yes," Grian heard himself say. He didn't quite remember making the decision.

Pearl smiled faintly again. "Good." She continued to step forwards slowly, and Grian saw that her freckles sparkled like stars. "There's a spot for you. Somewhere up there, someone's leaving. They want you to take their place."

"Wh-what does that mean?" Grian stammered. "Who? Where?"

Pearl eventually came to a stop mere inches from Grian, resting a gentle hand on his chest. "You have something special in you. Have you heard the tale of the Goddess of Sun?"

"Maybe," Grian said in reply. He remembered gold.

"She fell in love," Pearl continued in a whisper. Her hand drew back from the wrist, slender fingers swiftly pulling. "With someone here." Grian gasped slightly as something left his chest and settled in her palm, pulsing and bright. Pearl brought up her other hand to poke at it curiously, eyes peering at it with intense focus. 

Grian did not know what it was. The only thing he processed was gold, and energy, and life. When he looked too hard at whatever it was, it seemed to fade, blurring at the edges and pulsing faintly.

"She's leaving now," Pearl said, voice somewhat heavier. "She'd like you to take her place. A rightful heir."

"You said it was an offer," Grian said numbly.

Pearl shrugged, dislodging some of her curls to let them slip gently past her ear. "It is. You don't have to accept."

"What if I don't?" Defiant, to the very end. If Grian was watching this from another perspective, he might have chuckled. 

Instead of responding, Pearl's gaze shifted to somewhere over Grian's shoulder. With a cold feeling settling in his gut, Grian understood who she was looking at. "You can't save him on your own." 

Grian did not reply.

After a moment, Pearl said, "To become one of us, you have to leave this place first."

Grian's eyes blurred with what were probably tears, and he looked away to observe a Watcher in the process of ducking a punch thrown by a Listener. "Did... you?"

"Did I what?" Pearl's voice was faintly amused as she regarded him with a tilt of her head. A wave of calm settled over Grian, a welcome cooling balm over his pained soul. Grian's hand made its way to his heart, scrunching the fabric of his cloak as he squeezed slightly.

"Die."

"Yes," Pearl replied. She didn't hesitate. "There was nothing you could have done."

Grian shook his head vehemently, feeling the tears finally dripping from his lashes. "I could have been more prepared," he whispered. "I should have fought more."

All Pearl had to reply with was a sad smile. "I believe you'd make an excellent Sun." There was a stretch of silence, and she finally said, "Do you accept?"

A thousand years may have passed. Grian's heart thundered in his ears, and before he knew it, his mouth was moving around the word Yes.

With a shuddering gasp and a jolt, Grian found himself standing in between Xisuma and Xeluph. He couldn't remember how he'd gotten there, but time was still slow, and Xeluph's face was still a wretched thing to behold, mouth wide open in a scream of effort and desperation and pain. Grian took one look in his eyes and...

...he felt regret.

"Time will slowly come back," were Pearl's last words in his ear before a breeze wisped away, back up, and gone.

"Wait," Grian said slowly. "Wait. Wait, wait- "

It was shameful. It was awful, Grian was scared, he was so afraid, and- and- He couldn't move, he was stuck too, watching time begin the speed up. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die."

"Please!" Grian screamed, the sound tearing itself out of his throat. "Don't make me go! I don't want- I-" He did not breathe, just choked over his own words. "I'm not a hero, I'm just-" I'm just me. I'm just Grian. I'm just a man.

"I don't want to die," he whimpered, cheeks wet and dripping with salt.

Time was slowly speeding up. Exponentially, people began to blink faster, and muscles propelled forwards and it was speeding up and Grian was running out of time, faster and faster and faster, the clouds above shifted and birds cried and wings flapped and Grian wrapped his hands around Xeluph's two fingers and squeezed his eyes shut and screamed and faster and faster and faster, and then-

Agony.

~~~

There may have been a hiccup. If there was, Xisuma hadn't noticed.

But in between one breath and the next, his neck prickled with the feeling of a target, and he whirled to see-

Bright, bright violet, and it was going to swallow him whole. He couldn't bring his hands up in time, his mouth opened in a cry-

And then there was color and movement and someone was there instead. When X blinked, he saw the sandy blonde color of Grian's hair.

His stomach dropped.

~~~

It hurt. It hurt so much. Grian couldn't move his hands, could only scream as white hot energy coursed its way through his veins from his fingers, searing its path through and ravaging his body. Xeluph's expression was one of utter shock, eyes wide and mouth slightly open even as he panted with exhaustion. Grian could feel it, could feel the pain so clearly and it took all of his focus to not let go.

It wasn't enough to just stand here.

Grian didn't take a deep breath, but through the agony, through the horrific lightless flame, he pushed. All of it, every drop of magic in his heart and in his veins, pumping through his limbs and up his legs and in from his head and into his hands and into Xeluph.

Xeluph was alight in golden energy as every drop of Grian's concentrated, unadulterated power blew its way into his system.

Revenge.

In less than a second, there was no one there anymore. Grian's hands closed on empty air, and the world began to blur and fade as the battle ground slowly to a halt.

And then he was falling, and it hurt, and it hurt so much, and he made a noise of agony and prayed that it would stop. That, even through all the years, that this would be the last of it. The last of the pain, the worst of the pain-

There were hands on his body, and they burned where they touched. Grian let out nothing short of a scream, legs bending slightly against the floor as he tried to cope somehow.

It was pointless. It was over.

Grian's breaths began to slow.

~~~

"Grian," Xisuma breathed. "Grian."

He watched, speechless, as Xeluph turned to nothing but golden dust, swirling and disappearing. And he watched, motionless, as Grian buckled to the floor with a strangled cry.

The battle had stopped.

In a flash, Xisuma found himself kneeling next to Grian, roughly grabbing his shoulders to turn him onto his back so that he could see Grian's face-

Grian recoiled from the touch with an agonized shout but turned to his back anyway, and Xisuma locked eyes with Grian's glowing, feverish pupils. They were already rapidly fading out.

"No!"

Xisuma didn't react to the cry, instead numbly watching, even as Xayla burst in and nearly shoved him to the side to take her place at Grian's. Her trembling hand rested on his chest, lavender light already snaking from her fingers- Something cold settled on Xisuma's shoulders as the sheer gravity of what was happening began to swirl in his mind, turning circles and circles-

"Don't." Grian's voice was nothing more than a strangled whisper, and Xisuma wanted to cry as Grian laid a trembling hand on Xayla's.

Xayla obeyed, a broken sob tearing itself out of his throat as Grian breathed. His labored cries had given way to pained inhales, and Xisuma thought that this was worse. Grian had resigned himself to his fate, and Xisuma...

...could not do anything about it, except for feel the grief begin to close in on his heart. He felt himself begin to mourn a man who had not yet died.

~~~

There were others there. Surrounding his rapidly declining body were the Hermits, and some Listeners too, and Joel did not know what to do.

He did not know Grian well, in all honesty, but he had hoped that it would change. Now, it seemed, it would be too late.

A man with piercing green eyes and a ragged scar over his nose sobbed by Grian's head. Another with shock white hair and one red eye had a hand on Grian's shoulder, face stoic. A woman with bouncy brown curls and a soft sweater laid her hands on his arms, his stomach, his chest, her magic trying and failing to be of use. Joel knew all of these people, but in this moment, he couldn't bring himself to name them.

Grian's eyes were bright with pain but still moving, and they swept the small crowd forming with something close to scrutiny. Joel was ashamed to admit that he tensed as Grian's gaze swept onto him, pained and longing.

Grian didn't say anything, his voice having long since left. There was no golden energy anymore save for the flecks in his irises, nothing to save him, and he's dying, Joel thinks.

~~~

Mumbo slammed his palm against the desk, switching furiously between channels. Why are none of them connected? he thought frustratedly to himself. According to the maps, there should have been some signal, and Mumbo couldn't help but worry as he flicked from Hermit to Hermit. Judging by the others' bewildered expressions, it seemed that they were facing a similar problem.

Absentmindedly, Mumbo's finger landed on Grian's channel. There was no static.

Mumbo jumped and immediately turned up the volume, holding his comm closer to his mouth as he spoke frantically. "Grian? Grian are you- are you there?" He craned his ear to listen for sounds of war, but there was just... silence. Heavy breathing.

...Crying?

"Grian?" Mumbo tried again, dread settling in his chest.

"No!"

"Don't."

A sob, and then another. Static flooded in, drowning any remaining noise out.

The comm slipped from Mumbo's hand.

~~~

Scar was crying.

Tears dripped down rough cheeks as he stared down at ashen skin, only distantly aware of the others that took their places surrounding...

...Oh my god. Grian was dying. Scar was a faerie of life, of nature, and as his trembling hands combed through Grian's soft strands of hair, he could feel that there was none left. He bent his head closer to Grian's, slowly touching their foreheads.

In the back of his mind, Scar remembered laying eyes for the first time on Grian's mischievous grin, remembered seeing his wings for the first time, remembered his anger and distrust- but he remembered Grian's strength, and his power, and his kindness, and-

Scar was crying.

~~~

Xayla was not crying.

She stared intently into Grian's slack face, squeezing his hand futilely, struck dumb by the realization that his chest wasn't moving anymore. That his eyes had dulled, and now were trained unseeing on the ceiling.

A scream ripped itself from her chest, pained and stabbing, filling the silent chamber with its echoes. Even with... with... Even with this, she still saw the other soldiers. The Watchers.

Xayla clenched her jaw as they raised their spears, hands tightening protectively around Grian's cold form.

~~~

Grian sighed and let himself go.

the battle of the capitol, final part.

tws: death, violence

sorry :,)

there's still more to go, but the falling action is here, and it's not gonna be too long. thank you guys so much for your patience with this chapter, it was very hard to write. do let me know if you find typos or little mistakes like that!

i saw some of you predicting that pearl was gonna be goddess of the moon. it's not explicitly stated here, but that's more or less the case. good job!

this scene is what led me to write this story. it's changed a lot over the years- for one, grian was at one point gonna do like a weird under the floor powerboost thing for the listeners and that was gonna be how he ran out of magic or whatever. i kind of liked the idea of letting him get his revenge better, though- i hope it speaks to his more human side, and that, like he says, he's just a guy. he's not a hero archetype.

it's not a perfect chapter- far from it, actually. but i still have so much to thank you all for, for supporting me, for leaving kind comments and voting, for everything. thank you. thank you for following me on this journey. it's not over yet, but we can see the destination over the hill now.

(hopefully next chapter will be soon, hate to leave this on such a somber note for too long)

thank you for reading! have a good day or night, wherever you are <333 see you soon :)

-Ete